| 09
April
2010
Solar power to the people!
Until recently, the major barrier to solar energy's uptake lay in the low efficiency — and relatively high cost — of converting it into a usable form. But scientific breakthroughs are rapidly eroding this barrier. Photovoltaic technologies, which use chemical reactions to turn sunlight into electricity, are advancing rapidly, as are the batteries used to store electricity until it is needed. As conversion and storage costs fall, solar technology's potential for serving poor communities will inevitably rise.
23
November
2009
Foundation for a Low Carbon Future: Essential Elements of a Copenhagen Agreement
Copenhagen should serve as a foundation for and springboard to a new legally
binding global climate agreement.
This brief paper, rooted in WRI’s long-running analysis of the complex and interconnected issues under negotiation, identifies key elements for a successful and possible outcome in Copenhagen (categorized in this document by The Big Picture Agreement, Building a Sound Foundation, and Support for Developing Countries). These include a clear set of follow-on negotiations to complete a legally binding agreement. This process could be achieved in two stages - at a continuation of the COP 15 Copenhagen session six months later (a so-called COP 15 bis), and at the next full conference of the UNFCCC parties (COP 16) in Mexico in December 2010. Putting in place a clear process to agree upon the final legally binding instrument(s) in one negotiation track will be key to success. After two years of negotiations, many of the elements required for an effective post-2012 climate agreement are already clear.
05
August
2009
Systems of innovation: Their time has come
Recent commitments about innovation systems in Colombia and South Africa are encouraging. They send a powerful signal to other developing countries that systems of innovation must form the heart of development policies. Challenges to implementing systems of innovation are acute for developing countries, yet so are the benefits — not only for local businesses, but for public services such as health, agriculture and environmental protection.
08
July
2009
New Princeton method may help allocate carbon emissions responsibility among nations
The Princeton proposal establishes a uniform "cap" on emissions that individuals should not exceed (represented by the green line). If, for example, an international treaty caps global emissions at a certain level, the necessary reductions in global emissions could be achieved if no individual's emissions could exceed a certain "cap." By counting the excess emissions of all the individuals who are projected to surpass the "cap" (red arrows), the proposal provides emissions reduction targets for each country (blue arrows).
Credit: Courtesy of PNAS
01
June
2009
USA: The American Clean Energy and Security Act: Key Elements and Next Steps
The bill allows for up to 2 billion tonnes of offsets a year, split 50/50 between domestic and international activities. Domestic offsets – generated by unregulated sources of greenhouse gases, not covered by the carbon cap – would mainly come from forestry and agriculture. International offsets would be generated from activities that reduce forest loss, as well as sectoral crediting mechanisms, and other programs.
21
May
2009
USA: Climate change odds much worse than thought - MIT
New analysis shows warming could be double previous estimates
22
April
2009
Speech by Achim Steiner on the Global Green Economy and Israel
...However, something quite remarkable has occurred in less than 12 months.
The convergence of first the food and fuel crises followed by the financial and now economic crisis have triggered a global response in terms of political cooperation and the mobilizing of stimulus packages of almost unimaginable proportions. The question now is how will the around $3 trillion-worth of stimulus packages be spent-on the old brown economy or a new Green one that might set the stage for a truly sustainable century? An economy able to deal with multiple challenges-from food and fuel to climate change, employment and natural resource constraints-as integrated and inter-linked ones....Investing one per cent of global GDP, or around $750 billion, into five key sectors could be the key to a Global Green New Deal. Broadly those five sectors are:-
- Raising the energy efficiency of old and new buildings
- Renewable energies including wind, solar, geothermal and biomass
- Sustainable transport including hybrid vehicles; high speed rail and bus rapid transit systems
- The planet's ecological infrastructure including freshwaters, forests, soils and coral reefs
- Sustainable agriculture including organic production
The Policy Brief also calls for a range of specific measures aimed at assisting poorer countries to reach the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) and green their economies.
17
November
2008
Trade and Regional Integration Influencing the Environmental Dimension, according to GEO MERCOSUR report
- Natural resources are approximately 60% of total exports in the subregion
- Countries are not isolated environmentally: 11 of 55 ecoregions are shared
and transnational
- Study was launched in the framework of the Ninth Meeting of Ministers of
Environment of the Mercosur and Associated States, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. November 14, 2008.
22
October
2008
USA: Investing in a Clean Tech Economy and Climate Change Solutions
Energy needs a thorough makeover.
The 20th century energy paradigm is not sustainable in a carbon-constrained world.
A clean energy transformation can be the equivalent of the New Deal, which got people off breadlines to build bridges, stadiums and schools, and the Apollo project, which put a man on the moon. Energy is the public works project of our time, to create jobs, clean our environment, and improve the competitiveness of our businesses.
12
September
2008
Energy technology and information technology - similar revolutions?
The author comments on a recently published book by THomas Friedman "Hot, Flat, and Crowded: Why We Need a Green Revolution-and How It Can Renew America"
05
August
2008
Brazil – The Failure of Doha Negotiations or the Ethanol Industry Through the Looking Glass
In fact, as it is now, based on the governmental mantra about liberalization of the international market of such commodities, Brazil exports land – wood products, iron and ore, raw agricultural
products and alike. In other words, Brazil basically mines natural resources and the government made of this mining a center piece of its development strategy. Not very wise, not at all creative.
18
June
2008
CC8 Open letter on Climate Cooperation
A post-2012 international agreement on climate change must break new ground in
international cooperation. It will require consciously promoting a collaborative atmosphere of
trust and a sense of common interest similar to the ‘spirit of Montreal’ that has characterized
twenty years of international cooperation since the Montreal Protocol on protecting the ozone
layer. A post-2012 agreement must aim to promote a global technological revolution that will
transform the world’s energy system within a few decades. While the scope is huge, it can be
focused, recognizing that only about 25 nations – including both developed and rapidly
industrializing nations – account for about 85 per cent of the world’s greenhouse gas
emissions.
In this letter we present the key messages coming from the Conference for your consideration.
While these are meant to contribute to the consideration of technology and finance issues in
the course of international negotiations leading up to the UNFCCC Conference of the Parties
in Copenhagen in 2009, they should also be useful in the discussion of these issues in other
fora.
11
October
2007
Ethanol – Brazil risks to lose its cutting edge position on biofuels
At this stage, available information indicates that Brazil will keep its role in the production of agricultural products with little aggregated value – based on its large territorial availability – while paying royalties for technology that has a high aggregated value. Put in simple words, only more of the same.
12
June
2007
Power struggle in the Amazon
NGO PRISMA proposes a feasible and replicable model to supply power to small isolated communities in the Amazone. It addresses properly community ownership, involvement of the local utility, and renewable energy solutions; it gathers all key elements to promote sustainable development and local social inclusion.
04
January
2007
Environmental Regulations in Mining: Business Opportunities for Goods and Services
In the last decades, the mining and metallurgical industries worldwide, including Chilean companies, have had to modify their technological processes to meet the environmental regulations required by their governments, as well as to come up with the public opinion.
For example, between 1989 and 2002, the five State Chilean copper smelters invested over US$ 1.5 billion in their operations to comply with the new air quality standards (particulate matter and sulfur dioxide) and of arsenic emissions regulation .
These investments generated an important market for gases handling systems.
Now, new environmental regulations such as the guidelines on hazard solid wastes management, the updating of the air quality and emissions standards, the draft law on mine closure and environmental mining wastes (abandoned mines) that is being discussed by the authorities and the mining sector, or initiatives about efficient use of the energy and water resources will allow the environmental goods and services market to keep growing.
06
November
2006
Joining the dots:Informal global partnerships cut through bureaucratic walls
Type 2 energy partnerships are young, but seem to be finding a role in the global clean energy marketplace. At times this is a precarious spot located between the private sector, development banks, NGOs and the regions and communities who desperately require access to clean, affordable energy.
09
October
2006
As Central and South American's economies get stronger, a clean energy matrix is gradually becoming visible
The economic success in Central and South American has been accompanied by a steady increase in energy demand. The present article sets out to assess how governments are dealing with this new matter.
27
September
2006
Making Trade Liberalization Work for Sustainable Development
How environmental policy—far from being a brake on trade—is emerging as a powerful new force generating new kinds of trading opportunities.
01
August
2006
Energy security causing more concern than climate change?
Energy security looks possibly for the present at least, to become a greater concern to many governments than climate change. The recent G8 summit in St. Petersburg, for instance, manifested this. The present article sets out to assess this prospect--and also to see where UN agreements, such as CDMs, fit in to current and future possibilities.
08
June
2006
Energy Efficiency – that elusive bargain!
The Energy Efficiency Investment Forum (EEIF), attended by over 110 international experts on EE, held in New York last month, provided an excellent forum for presentation and debate on the state of the global EE market, coming as it did alongside the wider debate on future energy needs at the CSD within the United Nations. If there was one theme that emerged from the EEIF, it was that while energy savings could provide perhaps a 50% reduction in global energy demand, the realisation of such savings is still an uphill battle.
15
December
2005
Is transformation possible? Towards a low carbon economy
This article examines some of the themes emerging from the UNFCCC
convention just held in Montreal. Negotiations will continue for the
period beyond 2012--perhaps even with full US participation sooner or
later--so coming up on the international climate change agenda will
be more discussion, and some dissent, on carbon trading markets, on
renewables, new technology, and other very necessary moves towards the
low-carbon economy. The Montreal Convention was one as much for
business as environmentalists, and no meaningful progress seems
possible without their mutual cooperation
23
November
2005
Assessing microbial safety of drinking water: Improving approaches and methods
Inadequate drinking water and sanitation are amongst the world's major causes of preventable morbidity and mortality. This book provides a state-of-the-art review on approaches and methods used in assessing the microbial safety of drinking-water.
12
October
2005
"Natural Accounting" Essential for Poverty Reduction
Poverty will only be made history when nature’s capital is factored into national profit and loss books, one of the world’s leading economists will assert today.
03
October
2005
World Habitat Day
The theme of this year’s World Habitat Day, “The Millennium Development Goals and the City”, highlights the importance of managing rapid urbanization and reducing urban poverty.
03
September
2005
Nature’s Capital at Centre of Poverty Eradication
Editorial by Klaus Toepfer, UNEP Executive Director
2005 World Summit Must be Red Ribbon Day for Environment.
22
October
2004
Assessing the environment
This article outlines the current state of environmental assessment and monitoring in Latin America. It looks at the relative progress made in e.g. Mexico as highlighted in an OECD asssessment. As that same report indicated, however, much remains to be done, and the article goes on to consider some of the basic problems remaining, and how they can best be addressed. More public participation is clearly required, and some guidelines are given by, for example, JPAC (the Joint Public Advisory Committee) associated with NAFTA, which this year celebrates its 10th birthday.
16
March
2004
Pollution Prevention-What is It, and How to Advance It
This article defines Cleaner Production/Pollution Prevention. It then looks at how it can be promoted in Latin America, by means of environmental management systems (EMS), environmental accountancy (EMA), and various other avenues, including foreign assistance.
01
October
2003
Environmental biotechnology: Problems and prospects, with respect to waste treatment and other environmental challenges
This article outlines biotechnology developments occurring in Latin America, particularly with regard to waste treatment and other environmental challenges. Opportunities for cooperation with Canada, and Canadian firms, in both traditional and new sectors, are discussed.
07
June
2003
What Kyoto offers towards Canadian-Latin American Partnership
This article looks at opportunities for Canadian business in Latin America, and cooperation in general between Canada and Latin American countries, once Kyoto is ratified. The environmental industry/business is growing steadily in, for example, Mexico and Brazil, but there are some misgivings in, for instance, Chile, about proposed legislation designed to deal with the Kyoto Protocol and its implications.
New Harvard Project Report Outlines Ideas for Successor to Kyoto Protocol
A new report from the Harvard Project on International Climate Agreements outlines several promising ideas that could succeed the Kyoto Protocol. The report also provides guidance on the most intractable challenges facing global climate negotiators, including participation by developing countries, how to reduce deforestation, and how to prevent a "collision" between climate policy and international trade law.
Cooperation not compulsion on clean technology transfer
Developing countries will need 'clean technologies', such as micro-wind energy, if they are to play an active role in combating climate change over the coming decades. The question is how to access these? The answer lies in genuine cooperative technology transfer between the developed and developing world.
State of the World 2010: From Madison Avenue to Mad Max? -Worldwatch report
"We've seen some encouraging efforts to combat the world's climate crisis in the past few years," says project director Erik Assadourian. "But making policy and technology changes while keeping cultures centered on consumerism and growth can only go so far. To thrive long into the future, human societies will need to shift their cultures so that sustainability becomes the norm and excessive consumption becomes taboo."
Biodiversity loss matters, and communication is crucial
As with climate change, the threat of large-scale biodiversity loss — and the need for global political action to stop it — is growing every day. Both issues face formidable challenges in persuading political leaders and the public of the urgent need to take action. The reasons are complex. But at root is the conflict between the need to radically change our use of natural resources and the desire to maintain current forms of economic growth in both developed and developing countries.
Clinton puts science at heart of US development strategy
In an unprecedented endorsement of Science Technology and Innovation (STI) in development, Clinton said: "While talent may be distributed universally, opportunity is not. And the reality of the world we live in today is that technology and innovation are the great equalisers and can be used to create opportunity where there is very little of that commodity."
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